Below Zero

It's getting cold here in Bratislava. We had several days and several inches of snow. Neither of us has ever really experienced a true winter. Throughout the week, I saw the Tesco digital thermometer go from 0 to negative 8 (Celsius). The snow is really nice, but the biggest hassle, besides not being able to feel one's toes and fingers, is that it takes an extra 5 minutes or so to get dressed to go anywhere and an additional 5 minutes to undress upon arriving. We are adjusting though. It's not like this is going to go on for another three months. Oh wait...

We had a nice trip into Vienna yesterday to check out their Christmas markets, which were definitely nice. We had lunch with an old friend that I went to summer camp with, Jacob Lewis, his wife, Darcy, and their son, Hersch. The good thing about old friends is that I probably haven't seen Jacob for 10 years or so and it was like it had only been a week. They are living in Vienna while Jacob is on a research grant.

Here are some pictures from our weekend. And I finally posted pictures from our Istanbul trip here.

Bath Time

It's been a week since we went to the Cemberlitas Turkish bath in Istanbul. Now that I've had time to really process my thoughts about the experience, I need to express them. At the least, it'll be therapeutic for me to write it all out.

One might ask why I would even consider going to a Turkish bath. I don't particularly like public gym or locker room situations and this pretty much consolidates all the things I don't like into one. On top of that, I really don't like being touched by others. This is why I don't go to spas and why I've never gotten a massage.

The Cemberlitas bath was built in the 16th century and my understanding is that the original purpose was for Muslims to cleanse themselves before praying, though their website says this one in particular was built to generate revenue for the "Valide-i Atik Charity Complex in Toptasi, Üsküdar", whatever that is. This one is very popular though with tourists and from what we were told, we shouldn't be heroes and try to test out one of the less-touristy ones. Fine by me.

The services were a la carte, so I could have just gone with the basic entry to the bath, and had a swell old time on my own for the morning. It was only a little more to have someone scrub and bathe you and since that seemed to be the way to get the true and full experience, I went with it.
After walking in and paying, Jenn, Anna, and Rachel were taken in one direction to the women's bath section. I was on my own. I was already feeling extremely vulnerable, so it didn't help matters when I was shown to a changing room and told to disrobe. A pastamal, basically a cotton towel wrap, was provided to wrap around my waste. I left all my belongings in the changing room, locked it, and was then escorted downstairs. To get to the bath area, it requires walking through the main atrium where many people are either paying or sitting at tables hanging out. It's awkward.

I entered what appeared to be an enormous sauna. There was a large round marble platform in the middle and it was surrounded by "private" areas along the outer walls with a marble step to sit on and small bird bath looking basins of water. Wrapped in my pastamal, I took a seat on one of the side steps and made an attempt to relax. The sweat was nice, I guess. I've never thought of myself as a germaphobe, but all I could think about the entire time was when was the last time this place was sanitized. And this isn't to say the place didn't look clean, because it did, but it is a few hundred years old and lots of lots naked bodies pass through every single day. When was the water in the basin last changed out? How many other people previously were leaning their bare sweaty backs against the same marble wall against which I was leaning? Needless to say, and this will be a running theme, my biggest problem, is that I couldn't relax. A spa or bath will never be enjoyable without relaxation.

After a while, the other patron in there with me walked over to the large marble slab in the middle and lied down. As he did, one of the men who worked there walked in the room and proceeded to bathe him. I watched in horror as this was happening 5 feet in front of me not because of the actual act, but because I now knew what was coming. The whole process took about 30 minutes and the whole time I was trying to decide if I should cash in my chips right there and leave.

A few minutes later, my anxiety reached new heights as another half naked attendant walked in, first pointed at me and then pointed at the center slab of marble. Now, I know it's hot in there. It's literally a sauna, but I think that they could come up with some kind of uniform for the attendants that would not be too uncomfortable. There I was, lying on my back, with nothing covering me but the pastamal, looking up at a Turkish man in his 40's, also with nothing on but a pastamal wrapped around his waste, ready to use my body as his playground.

He tried to make it more comfortable and put me at ease by talking to me, but it wasn't helping. My body was rigid as a board as he used the loofah type sponge to scrub and exfoliate my skin. He used his bare hands at times to massage different parts of my body, but again, I was so tense, that it did no good. I had my eyes closed for most of it, trying to imagine I was somewhere else, specifically thinking back to February when I was at the Super Bowl watching Tracy Porter intercept Peyton Manning and return it for the game clinching touchdown for the Saints. This image usually helps me in stressful situations, but it wasn't doing much good as reality kept setting in when my hand or other parts of my body would inadvertently brush up against the sweaty flesh of his bare stomach. He could obviously sense how uncomfortable I was and it seemed like he wanted it to be over as much as I did. He continued though for what seemed like an hour, but was probably more like 15 minutes.
 
When it was completely over, he told me I could go back and sit in the sauna. I declined. I was done. I really felt uncomfortable at this point and somewhat violated. I don't use that word lightly and I'm not trying to be funny as I fully understand the connotation. However, I do feel it best describes my state of mind at this point. While I had an idea of what was going to happen, I know I didn't fully grasp what the full experience would be like until I actually went through with it. Now, I know.

I rinsed off in the shower, but still did not feel clean, and headed back upstairs to change. Before I walked out, my attendant strongly encouraged me to bring him a tip when I came back downstairs.

After changing, the upstairs attendant also pushed a tip jar in front of my face to made sure I understood that tipping was not an option. I also tipped the guy downstairs. If only there was an amount of money I could have paid at that point to erase the entire experience from my memory, I would have gladly forked it over.

I sat in the atrium and waited for over an hour before the girls were finished. I tried to think if there was anything that would have made it less stressful for me. I am confident it wouldn't have made a difference if it was a man or woman doing the scrubbing. The sex of the attendant wouldn't have changed the fact that it was a stranger, I was in a strange place, and in a completely vulnerable state being touched all over. They enjoyed the experience much more than me. We went and had lunch and eventually I was able to go back to the hotel and take a nice, long shower. I finally felt clean again.

I realize it sounds like I'm overreacting, and in a way, I know I am, but I'm also being honest. I can't help the way I feel. One of Tigie's (my grandfather) favorite sayings was "different strokes for different folks", so I totally get how some people would enjoy this type of experience. I understand why people get massages and go to spas. I just know it's not for me. It's strange because I come from a very touchy-feely family.
Personal space is sacred to me and I do not like people encroaching on it. I'm not sure why I am the way I am, but at least I know myself and my boundaries. There are other ways in which I choose to relax.

As I reflect back on the experience, I'm glad I tried. Even though I do usually have a very good idea whether I'll like something or not before I do it, there is always the chance I'll be surprised. If the worst thing that happens from trying is getting a naked Turkish man give you a full body scrubbing and rub down, I can live with that.

Turkish Delight

After I ruined Rachel's last day in Bratislava by giving Jenn and her bad directions to the art museum and causing them to get lost and waste several hours, we headed out on Wednesday for Istanbul. Rach had her choice of places to go when she came for her visit and Istanbul was the designated spot. We were also meeting up with her (and our) friend, Anna, who was flying in from New York.

Our first impression of Istanbul, as we drove through the streets in the airport shuttle, was that it reminded us a lot of Israel, but with mosques; lots of them. It actually was a blend of Israel and Athens. Water surrounds the city, so we saw some nice views, but also squeezed through some very narrow streets filled with shop after shop after shop selling carpets, pashminas, "hand" painted dishes, souvenirs, and lots of other random junk. After we spent several days there, we couldn't get over how many shops were selling the exact same things. I'm still not sure what differentiates one store from the next, but there are certainly plenty of people there spending money, so I guess it's working.

Istanbul as a whole is interesting. I wouldn't call it pretty, but the landscape is unique and it's overflowing with rich culture and history. There are so many people. The streets feel awfully crowded. I don't do well in this type of environment when I don't get much personal space and what I do have isn't respected or recognized by others. There are roughly 11 million people living in the city and it feels like it. The food is outstanding and consists primarily of grilled meats, mostly lamb, and eggplant prepared hundreds of different ways. When you factor in the fact that there are some great tourist attractions, it really makes it a great destination.

We stayed at the Hotellino, which Jenn found on Trip Advisor. The location was perfect. It was a block or so from the Gulhane tram stop and within walking distance of all the major attractions. It definitely wasn't fancy and didn't offer much in amenities besides three bottles of water per person per day (which is amazing when you stop and think about the fact that many hotels charge $5 if you open up the bottles of water they put out), but the rooms were simple, clean, and breakfast and internet were included.

After arriving, we walked around for the remainder of the afternoon to get our bearings. We walked across the Galata bridge and up past the Galata Tower to the Beyoglu area and walked down Istiklal Caddesi, the main shopping street. It was very crowded. With all the well known stores, it could have been a busy shopping street in any city. Dinner was on a side street at Zubeyir Ocakbasi where we ate grilled meats and kebabs. Anna had done some good restaurant research on ChowHound, so we were well prepared. It's nice to travel with someone who puts as much importance on food as we do. We were all exhausted from traveling, so we headed back early to get some rest.

Our first full day was very busy. It also happened to be Thanksgiving. There was no Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and no turkey to be found, but we made due. We started out with a visit to the Topkapi Palace, which was great. We ate lunch at Subasi, which was a small dive serving Turkish comfort food, and then spent some time walking through the Grand Bazaar. I didn't find it all that grand and thought it was more bizarre than bazaar. The place is filled with literally thousands of stores selling pretty much the same stuff. It's a maze where I have no idea how people find specific stores. We then walked over and through the Blue Mosque, which really wasn't that blue. The exterior was beautiful, but the inside didn't do it for me. After a couple of hours of rest at the hotel, we walked over for a quick stroll through the spice bazaar before boarding the ferry for the Asian side of the city. It was at this point that Rachel chose to try a fish sandwich, a local specialty, even though we were on our way to eat. Dinner at Ciya was good. It sits within the fish market on the Asian side, but really didn't have any seafood on the menu. Their kebabs were better than the traditional Turkish dishes. It wasn't the grand Thanksgiving feast we wanted, but it was still pretty good.
On Friday, we started off at the Cemberlitas Turkish Bath, which seems to be the thing to do there. This really deserves its own blog post and will get it. All I can say is that I will never be the same. The girls enjoyed it. We had a really nice lunch and molten chocolate cake at Rumeli Cafe. At this point, it was raining a good bit, so we didn't want to go far. We walked through another market, the Arasta Bazaar, and did some more shopping. A trip to Istanbul involves much more shopping than I prefer, but I was pretty patient. I'm not sure what Rach and Anna did at this point, but Jenn and I escaped the rain with a walk through the Haghia Sophia, which is an extremely old Mosque that is no longer used for prayer and is now just for tours and viewing. The exterior is stunning, but the inside was also spectacular. We spent our last evening with Rachel and Anna eating dinner at Antiocha, a small, trendy place in the Beyoglu area. The menu was limited, but everything was excellent. Because we didn't have a reservation, we had to sit at an outside table, which was fine for a while, until it started raining. We headed back to the Sultanahmet neighborhood, where our hotel was, and had dessert at Mado. Their specialty is sliced ice cream, which is exactly as it sounds. It was fine, but more a novelty than a great dessert. Rachel and Anna were leaving in the morning, so we said our goodbyes before going to bed.
For our last day, Jenn and I slept late and then ate a nice lunch at a seafood place called Balikci Sabahattin, which was pretty good, but maybe a bit overrated by all the guide books that laud its cuisine. After lunch, we hit one more mosque, the Suleymaniye Mosque, which we actually liked much more than the Blue Mosque. We walked across the Galata Bridge, took the Tunel Funicular up to Istiklal, and then rode the tram up to Taksim Square where we took the metro to what we thought was going to be a nice boutique shopping area. It was not. Sometimes guidebooks are very helpful. Other times, they are not. We gave up after a few blocks and headed back to Beyoglu as it was getting close to dinner time. Our final dinner was at Mikla, the much hyped restaurant from Mehmet Gurs, who is a well known Turkish chef, we think. The swanky restaurant sits on the 17th floor of the Marmara Pera Hotel and has amazing views from every table. Jenn's beef tenderloin and my smoked lamb were both outstanding. The warm chocolate cake for dessert was a delicious and fitting end to the dinner and our time in Istanbul.

We really enjoyed this trip. It was very different than other places we visited, and that's a good thing. The more and more we see of the world, the more and more we want to see.

We arrived back to a snow covered Bratislava. Winter is officially here.

Christmas Market

We met up with friends the other night at the Christmas market. Jory is also from the US and is on a 2 year stint working in the treasury group. He was with his girlfriend, Jana, who he met in Bratislava. The Yeagers, Charles, Geneva, and their children, Alexa and Dylan, arrived from Austin right around the same time we did. We've become close friends as we went through the expatriation process together and we spend a lot of time together here in Bratislava.

The market runs for about a month and is filled with booths either selling locally made goods or Slovak street food. Rachel was a veteran of Christmas markets. She had been to several during her travels when she was living in London. She thought she was really cool. We had a good time and I imagine we'll be wandering over there often for dinner. On this night, we both ate ciganska, which is basically chicken or pork with onions on a hot bun. It's really good when it's cold outside.

We thought the market was great. We've heard it's better than the ones in bigger cities because they are more commercial and aren't selling as much locally made stuff. I guess we'll see. 

Czech Please

We're back in Prague where I had work to do this week. We arrived on Tuesday by train from Bratislava where we spent two nights after the week in Paris. Audit work is not for the weary.

It was cold, rainy, and altogether unpleasant throughout the week, so we didn't venture too far from out hotel in the evenings. Cafe Imperial was recommended by our hotel and was good. It had classic charm to it, with a mosaic tiled ceiling. We also enjoyed Pravda, which is located right next to the Old New Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter. They do classic Czech cuisine, but in an updated way. The chocolate fondant for dessert was perfectly cooked, with the center oozing liquid chocolate, just as Jenn likes it.

Once the work week ended, Jenn and I ventured out into the rain on Friday night and had dinner at Monarch, a wine restaurant. We each had a glass of Czech wine because we felt like more than that would put us to sleep. The wine complimented the mozzarella and tomato foam salad, beef carpaccio, and cheese plate. Everything was tasty. It was a perfect meal to end the week.

Instead of going to sleep and getting some rest, which we probably should have done, we took in a late showing of The Social Network at the movie theater not far from our hotel. We both really enjoyed it. I'm not on Facebook, but was really interested in the movie from a business perspective. I've been told that the movie takes a lot of liberties with the story of how the company and site were born, but regardless, as a movie, it worked really well. I'd be interested to read Ben Mezrich's book, The Accidental Billionaires, on which the movie was based. There were a lot things the movie made me think about, but mostly that the site became so successful because of exclusivity and being cool. Now that almost everyone is on it, including parents, grandparents, teachers, bosses, and anyone else you can think of that you wouldn't want looking in on your personal life, is it still cool to be on Facebook? And if not, how much longer will it last? I personally think privacy and not posting status reports every time one changes their child's diaper is cool, but that's for another blog posting.

My sister, Rachel, arrived this morning and met us at the hotel. We switched hotels to be closer to the city center. The Moods hotel is modern and very simple. It's a tight squeeze for the third bed for Rach, but it's only for one night. This is us before bed this evening. Rachel had already crashed. Please note that we did not call up someone from the hotel to take this picture. The camera was on automatic.

We are big believers in hitting the ground running after traveling and not stopping to nap or rest. We find that it is much better for the jet lag. Rachel arrived after breakfast. We stopped for coffee (for her) and hot chocolate (for us) at the Praha Bakeshop. We discovered it on our last trip with my parents and now we can't get enough of it.

We joined a free walking tour that took us around the city center, showing us the highlights, and giving some of the history. I know it was free and you can't ask for much, but the tour guide was kind of an asshole. It was almost like he was on an ego trip about having 40 or so tourists following him around and listening to his every word. He was very rude and patronizing to the entire group. This wasn't our biggest problem. He was way too casual in the way he hit on certain parts of the history of the city that are more serious. I'm not sure if he didn't know what he was talking about, was trying to be funny, or, as mentioned above, really is an asshole. The perfect example of what I'm talking about here is when we were in the Jewish Quarter and he explained that the Jews had "a pretty hard time" in Word War 2. Jenn actually said something to him about it after the tour, so hopefully he took it to heart.

We walked with Rachel across the Charles Bridge, past the John Lennon peace wall, and had a nice lunch at a Thai place called Noi. We then walked up to the castle, stopped in a pub for some good and very cheap beer, and then headed back to the hotel for a break. We lost Rach at this point, but we knew she needed to get some sleep. Jenn and I headed off to dinner. It was very cold, so we didn't want to venture far, and found a pizza place, that wasn't bad.

I was skeptical when Rachel made her plans to come here and was only giving herself two days in Prague, but it looks like that will turn out to be plenty of time as we saw most everything today already. We'll head back to Bratislava on the train tomorrow afternoon. 

Still Here

I haven't blogged in a while, mainly because I've been incredibly busy.

Work sent me to Lodz (pronounced "Woodge"), Poland. It's an industrial town, similar to what I imagine Detroit and Cleveland to look like. We stayed at a nice hotel there, the Andel's Hotel, that was connected with a new development (Manufaktura) with shops and restaurants. It wasn't a bad place to be for a week of work. I didn't have the time or energy to visit the Jewish ghetto that contained a couple hundred thousand Jews during World War 2. There is also a large Jewish cemetery that I did not visit. The weather was terrible on the one free day I had, so I went with a co-worker to see a movie at the theater next to our hotel.

We saw Due Date, which wasn't bad; but wasn't necessarily good either. It's a very poor man's "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", though I really shouldn't compare the two as PTAA is a masterpiece and one of my favorite movies. If you've never seen it, it's the perfect Thanksgiving movie, so go rent it (or however it is you watch movies) tonight. You won't be sorry.

The following week was in Paris. Jenn met me there. While Paris does sound awesome, being there for work is very different. The days were extremely long and tiring, but we did find time to eat some crepes, chocolate, French onion soup, and of course, macaroons from Pierre Herme. The world just seems a little better after eating a Pierre Herme macaroon.

On the mornings I didn't have a croissant for breakfast, I had an egg and cheese crepe. I think I'd weigh 1000 pounds if I lived in Paris. And I'd be broke because good lord, it is expensive there.

Over the weekend, even though it was raining, we did a lot of walking around the city and of course did some good eating. We each bought some European shoes, which is very exciting. On Sunday, we went to see this Louis Vuitton Exhibit at the Musee Carnavalet. It was much less horrible than you would think it would be. I hate to admit, but I actually enjoyed it.

Food highlights of note were as follows: French onion soup from Au Pied De Cochon, lunch at Cafe Voltaire, and steak frites at Relais de Entrecote.

Oh, and over the weekend, Jenn found the street she would like to live on one day...

The Goose is Loose

This is the time of the year is the time for goose feasts in Bratislava. At villages outside of the city, people open up their homes and offer full private goose dinners. Small restaurants also do this. It's apparently a very popular thing to do. The guys at work told me many companies book these types of dinners this type of year.

Since much of the Europe team was here this past week along with our boss, a couple members of the team planned a goose dinner for everyone. The few locals with cars drove all 15 or so of us out to the village. It was a little tricky finding the place, but we eventually figured it out.

The inside of the place, which I couldn't figure out if it was full time restaurant or just a place open this time of year for this events, was decorated with hides and heads of various animals. It looked like a hunting lodge, or what I imagine a hunting lodge to look like since I've never been in one.

The first course was peppers and pickles. It looked like a plate put out when you sit down at a deli. Next came the foie gras, which was good. Everything was family style. For the whole group, we had three full geese. The goose came next, which was a crispy golden brown on the outside. There were big bowls of cabbage on the side, but I wasn't that interested in that. I wasn't the only one. The goose was really good though. It's rich, like duck, and extremely heavy. I enjoyed it. I can see why it's a once a year thing.

Bohemian Rhapsody

While Jenn and I worked, Mom and Pa spent a day in Bratislava and two days in Vienna. I was anxious for them to go into Vienna on their own, but after preparing them with explicit instructions and walking them to the train station, there was nothing left we could do. As with children, sometimes you just have to let them spread their wings and fly on their own. They did great though and really enjoyed their time there. They liked the cafés, the sweets, the Naschmarkt, the Hopfburg Palace, and all the shopping. It didn’t take them long to get comfortable there. We met them in the city on Wednesday night for dinner for Schnitzel at Figlmuller and dessert at Café Diglas, which was fun.

Though they probably could have spent more time in Bratislava or Vienna, we boarded the train for Prague on Thursday morning at the main station. We all decided it would be good to give ourselves plenty of time so no one would feel rushed to get everything done in a short time frame.

We arrived in Prague to outstanding weather. It was cold, in the 30’s, but the sun shining brightly with little wind. This weather continued for our entire trip. With the cold temperature, all Jenn and I could think about is that it’s only October. This is autumn. Winter is really going to be brutal for us. As we always say though, the weather makes a huge difference in the experience of visiting a city, and the weather was the MVP of our trip to Prague.

We checked in and dropped off our bags at the very modern Design Metropol Hotel after a quick lunch at Café Slavia along the Charles River. The location, on the periphery of the Old Town area, was perfect. The rooms were small and I guess were trying to push the envelope with bright red carpet, but overall, this seemed like a pretty good place for us. We spent the afternoon strolling around the Old Town and then heading up to Prague Castle. Prague came back to me quickly, even though it has now been almost 5 years since we came here last. It’s very easy to navigate. The city has done a great job of restoring and maintaining all the old buildings. After seeing it all now, it does seem like there is little reason why Bratislava can’t someday be a smaller version of Prague. It’ll take another 10 to 20 years of development and they’ll need to maybe apply a fresh coat of paint to many of the buildings of the city, but it can get there.

Throughout the trip, my parents took pictures holding the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper travel section. From what they told us, readers can submit their travel photos of themselves holding the paper and then hopefully get selected to be featured. We took a ton of different shots of them. In fact, it's unfortunate, but there are now very few pictures of them on this trip where they are not holding the newspaper. I still say they should have taken a good one in Bratislava with the UFO bridge, but they didn't. This one below is the one that I think is the winner. I sure hope they make it in the paper. They definitely worked for it.

For dinner, we went to a place called Cowboys, which is a steak restaurant that is part of the Kampa Group, which owns several international style restaurants in town. It was pretty good. What made it cool was that it sits on the roof of a building up on the hill below the castle, so the views are terrific.

After a decent night of rest, we headed out early the next morning and took a tour of the Jewish Quarter with Premium Legacy Tours. Jenn and I had been on a similar tour when we came here years ago, but we didn’t remember that much about it. The whole thing came back quickly as we stepped inside the synagogues. We visited inside the four synagogues, the exterior of the Old New Synagogue, and the Jewish cemetery. We were very glad we did the tour on a Friday because there weren’t as many people visiting the Jewish Quarter that day. Prague can get extremely crowded with tourists, so it was nice to have Thursday and Friday where we could walk the streets without being suffocated by the surrounding people.

We ate lunch at Shelanu, a kosher “New York Style deli” which is in the Jewish area. My corned beef sandwich was good considering it’s the only time I’ve ever seen corned beef in Europe. We stopped for desserts and coffee for the parents at Praha Bakeshop, which is a really cute café with delicious sweets.

Mom and Pa wanted to shop a bit, so we spent the afternoon wandering around the Old Town. My 60 year old father loves trains and toy cars. He also really liked the wooden toys that many Prague stores sell. So, we spent a considerable amount of time walking through toy stores.

I never take naps, but I was beat, so went back to the hotel and passed out for a little over an hour. We then went to dinner at a little café called Dynamo that we looked up in a guidebook. It was very simple food, but done pretty well.

For our last full day of Prague, we didn’t have a set agenda, so we played it mostly be ear. We had breakfast at Bohemia Bagel, which is a big backpacker’s stop in Prague. The breakfast was solid and Jenn and I were really happy to have bagels. Again, it seems there is no reason why somewhere like this couldn’t be successful in Bratislava. Come on Bohemia Bagel. Think it over.

It was almost eleven in the morning, which meant the astronomical clock in the town hall was about to chime and do it’s little clock show that draws hundreds and hundreds of people every hour to stand there and stare, exponentially increasing the chance to get pick-pocketed. While the throngs of people watched, we took the opportunity to go to the top of the tower while there was no line. I wasn’t expecting much, but it actually was pretty cool. The views were spectacular of the square and the entire city. I know I’ve said it several times, but again, the weather was beautiful, so it made looking out on the city even better. After a few minutes though, it started to get really crowded up there and extremely uncomfortable. So, we headed back down. Though, I imagine Mom would have stayed all day looking out on the square if we hadn’t dragged her away.

We did some more shopping for a while and most importantly, Jenn and I found a nice spot to sit and wait on a bench directly in the sun while Mom shopped. It’s one thing I’ve learned over the years is when Mom gets going on her shopping, it’s important to find somewhere comfortable to sit and wait, because it could be a while.

Minutes turned to hours and then it was lunch time in the early afternoon. Because of the perfect weather, we went with Kampa Park. Kampa Park is a mainstay on lists of the best restaurants in Prague. It has embraced this popularity by continuing to offer a menu of selections that are relatively universal in their appeal at prices that are rather obscene. The views of the Charles River and the bridge are probably the best in the city and the food is good (even though it is ridiculously expensive). I had a steak sandwich that was surprisingly delicious. The presentation of the chocolate fondant and vanilla ravioli for dessert was beautiful and also tasted good.

We spent the afternoon exploring Lesser Town, which is below the castle. It’s a neighborhood of small windy streets, which Frommer’s compares to those of Paris. Not to sound snobby, but even on a good day, Prague is no Paris, and I don’t care how cute and windy the streets are. The highlight of this area was the John Lennon Peace Wall. Even after reading about, I still don’t fully understand how this wall came to be, but it’s a long wall filled with graffiti art inspired by the work of John Lennon. It was pretty neat and made for good pictures.

As I  said earlier, my father loves trains and that includes funiculars, which are normally single rail cars that are used for transporting passengers up and down hills. If one existed in a city, Papa wanted to ride. So, we took a ride on the funicular. It was already dark, so there was really nothing to be seen at the top of Petrin Hill and because of that, we just headed back down.

Dinner that evening was at Amori, which is a local neighborhood Italian place. It had great ambience and food to match. We really enjoyed our last meal together.

After another bagel this morning at Bohemia Bagel, we left Mom and Pa at Praha Bakeshop to sit and enjoy their coffee. We were really glad they came to visit both for them and for us. For the two of us, it makes us feel like friends and family isn’t far away. It also was nice to spend time with them since normally when we’re in New Orleans, the entire family is there, and the grandkids are (and should be) the main attraction. For my parents, we were happy to show them a part of the world they probably would never choose to see on their own, if they didn’t have children to visit there. They like to travel, but don’t do it too often. It was also a chance for them to get away from their everyday life of working and caring for my grandparents.

All in all, it was a great visit. We now are sitting on the train back to Bratislava chatting with two Mormon missionaries. This should pass the time. We’ll get back to our normal life tomorrow. My whole global audit team will be here for the week and then I’ll embark on a month of traveling for work.   

View the rest of the pictures from our trip here.

Meet The Parents

My parents arrived with me in Budapest on Friday evening. We cabbed it from the airport to the hotel, the Marriott Millennium Court Executive Apartments. We had a two bedroom suite for the weekend, which worked out well. The middle room felt like a wedding hospitality suite as my parents brought a ton of snacks with them and I had a bag full of goodies that our super cool friends Josh and Libby left for me at the hotel in Austin.

In an effort to get acclimated to the time zone, we walked around a good bit Friday evening. We strolled along the shore of the Danube and across the Chain bridge. We walked over to dinner at Fausto’s, which Frommer’s calls the best Italian restaurant in the city. We had a good meal. My dad and I both had wild mushroom lasagna. Jenn had pasta (can’t remember which kind), and Mom had salmon tortellini. Everything was very good.

As much as I travel, I still do not handle jet lag very well. It often takes me over a week to adjust. On Saturday morning, I awoke at 3:45 and was up for several hours before getting back to sleep. We ended up sleeping until 11. My parents were already up and ready to go, but didn’t wake us, since they were trying to let us get our rest.
We got going though and went over to the Central Market. It was a nice building and the market was fine, but not any better than anything we’d seen in other cities.

From there, we stopped at the Parliament Building to purchase tour tickets. Unfortunately, they were sold out for the day. A guy selling tours offered us tickets to a “private tour” if we were interested. We skeptically signed up, though we all feared getting ripped off. It ended up working out just fine, but I do wish we lived in a world where tourists didn’t have to worry about getting taken advantage of. It would really be nice if we all could try to help one another rather than trying to profit and capitalize on the vulnerability of others. Life really would be a whole lot easier.
The only place we could find for a quick lunch since we were trying to get back to Parliament for our tour was Subway. In case you are wondering, it does taste exactly the same as in the US.

We walked by the Holocaust memorial behind the Parliament building right next to the river. It is a row of shoes to signify the Jews who were lined up along the Danube, shot, and pushed into the river. It was simple, tastefully done, and extremely moving.

The tour of Parliament was really interesting, but the building itself is what is worth the price of admission. It’s like walking through a palace.

After a hike up to the top of St Stephen’s Basilica, we took a well deserved break at Café Gerbaud, which my parents really enjoyed. They had coffee and we had hot chocolate. We also shared a slice of apple cake, dobos torte, and cream cake. All were good, but I liked the cream cake the best.

Before dinner, Jenn worked, Mom walked around the shopping area on her own, and Papa and I took the funicular up to Buda Castle and walked around the castle district. It was as I remembered when Jenn and I were there a few years ago. The views were great, but besides that, there wasn’t much more to see.

Dinner was at M, which is a place about which we had heard and read a whole lot. The menu was limited, but everything we ate was pretty good. The restaurant is small, so we felt like we were a part of the birthday party going on in the room next to us. It turns out it was for a famous Hungarian singer. It reminded me of the rehearsal dinner in the movie with Anne Hathaway where she’s the screwed up singer because each person at the table sang a song for her. I can’t remember the name of that movie. The memorable part of dinner though was the chocolate fondant for dessert. It was the best dessert we’ve had since we arrived in Europe and dare I say, one of the best chocolate desserts we’ve ever had. Big words...

It was an exhausting day, but we had great weather and saw a good amount of the center part of the city. Budapest grows on me more with each visit there.

On Budapest day 2, we got our Jewish on with a walk through the old Jewish ghetto and a visit to the Dohany Street Synagogue. This was the same synagogue we attended for Yom Kippur services. It’s still beautiful.

After a lunch near the synagogue at the Carmel kosher restaurant, we hopped on a train and headed back to cold and rainy Bratislava. We got my parents settled in at the apartment, walked around a little in the old town, and had a nice dinner at Prasna Basta, which we all enjoyed.

It is fun playing host and tour guide, but also exhausting. It’s great to have Mom and Pa here.